Developing the ability to communicate clearly and artfully is our everyday ambition in fifth grade. Each of the pages in this section provide you with tools, mentors, and inspiration to grapple with our challenging (and fun) units of study this year.
Writing WorkshopAdapted from Jim W. Miller's poem by Charlotte Geyer
Try to think of your first draft as a creekIn flood time, roaring out of banks.There’s been a nightstorm on your mind’s headwatersSo the writing comes trash-filled, tumblingFull of chicken coops, barbed wire,Tin shed roofs scraping down over rocks.It’s tearing along through trees on either bankDropping fertilizer sacks and two-by-fours in branches.It’s swirling and standing out in bottomland.
Now you work with it until it dropsEvery tin can and bottle and runs clearAgain between its banks. Of course, you’ll wantTo leave a few surprises, so the reader,Out in your writing like a trout fisherman in waders,Rounds a bend and comes upon a pianoLodged high in the forks of a sycamore.
Each of the pages in this section provide you with tools, mentors, and inspiration to grapple with our challenging (and fun) units of study this year.
Writing WorkshopAdapted from Jim W. Miller's poem by Charlotte Geyer
Try to think of your first draft as a creekIn flood time, roaring out of banks.There’s been a nightstorm on your mind’s headwatersSo the writing comes trash-filled, tumblingFull of chicken coops, barbed wire,Tin shed roofs scraping down over rocks.It’s tearing along through trees on either bankDropping fertilizer sacks and two-by-fours in branches.It’s swirling and standing out in bottomland.
Now you work with it until it dropsEvery tin can and bottle and runs clearAgain between its banks. Of course, you’ll wantTo leave a few surprises, so the reader,Out in your writing like a trout fisherman in waders,Rounds a bend and comes upon a pianoLodged high in the forks of a sycamore.